Fallout 4’s Automatron DLC review

The distant future. The year 2000. Robotic beings rule the world, and the humans are dead. Not really, but if that robot mouth online making human noises is anything to go by, things are not looking good for us. Getting back to the matter at hand though, Fallout 4 Automatron is the first DLC to arrive for Bethesda’s latest massive RPG. You can pick it up for $10 (or R216 in South Africa) or as part of the season pass. It’s the first part of the 3 major DLC planned for Fallout 4 and this one, is all about robots!

The setup to Automatron’s story is an interesting one. Responding to a distress call you find that a pack of rogue and aggressive robots have killed a group of humans. One lone robot seems to be fighting against them however and it or she, was the companion of the fallen victims. Ada as she is called requests your assistance in putting a stop to the new menace and to confront The Mechanist, the mastermind behind the recent robotic uprising. To make matters worse, there is a new Raider faction in town that utilizes robots for their own evil deeds.

Looking at the premise alone, there are some really great elements to the story. We have a new companion, the robot Ada that displays some semblance of human emotion. There’s the mysterious Mechanist and its legion of killer robots alongside the new, deadly Raider faction, Rust Devils. In all honesty, it sounded a lot more exciting than a lot of the questlines in the main game. It’s just unfortunate however that not only does it take about +-3 hours to complete, but it’s really, painfully average. It feels just like every other quest, and while there are some interesting concepts thrown into the mix, it never fully goes beyond the expected.

When I reached the Mechanist’s lair, I ran into one cool looking trap. I thought that maybe this section was going to spice things up a bit, but nope, just like most of the quests in the game, it just became another shooting fest. Even the final encounter was just a survival test against waves of robots. When the truth was finally revealed, and I confronted the Mechanist, I was surprised by the curveball it threw, and I was actually excited by what had just transpired, but again, to my disappointment, that section wasn’t fleshed out and it ended like nothing happened. Oddly, the game doesn’t seem to account for the fact that Ada can accompany you. Seeing as how she requested your help, at the end of the quest you need to report back to her, and even though she was with me the entire time, when I spoke to her, she had asked me how it went and what I did as if she was never there.

I know I’m sounding quite negative right now, but there are some good points to the DLC. Like the newly added and quite amazing robot creation. Using parts from slain robots, you can now create and customize your very own robo buddy. Judging by the gun customization, I knew this feature would have some depth to it, and to no surprise, it was deep. I made a robot with a skull face, a hovering body like Mister Handy and made him wield a flaming sword in his right hand and turned his left hand into a claw. It’s pretty crazy what you can create and I was really impressed by this new feature. One caveat though, is that you’ll need to have put points into Science! and Robotics Expert to get the most out of this system.